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2024 celebrity book club picks
Recommended reading by Oprah, Reese Witherspoon, Jenna Bush Hager, and other celebs.
Published on May 23, 2024
How to End a Love Story: A Novel
Yulin KuangMay 2024, Reese’s Book Club: As romance readers know, a romance and a love story are two different things (romances have happily ever afters, love stories are plagued with tragedy). Yet screenwriter and director Kuang (who’s adapting Emily Henry’s “Beach Read” for the screen) blurs and bridges the lines between the two. Helen and Grant share a deep trauma — Grant was driving the car that killed Helen’s younger sister — but also a touching, steamy attraction. “How to End a Love Story” is a primetime tearjerker.
Long Island
Colm TóibínMay 2024, Oprah’s Book Club: Toibin delivers the highly anticipated sequel to his bestselling novel “Brooklyn,” in which Eilis Lacey was torn between Ireland and America — and the love of two men. Now, 20 years later, Eilis is settled in Long Island with her Italian American husband, until a devastating betrayal sparks her return to Enniscorthy, Ireland, now both strange and hauntingly familiar. Quiet, powerful, and probing the effects of secrecy, “Long Island” is yet another stunning work by a masterful author.
The Ministry of Time: A Novel
Kaliane BradleyMay 2024, Good Morning America Book Club: In this genre-blending debut, a British Cambodian government worker must help a time traveler from the past orient himself in modern-day England. Hilarious situations — and unexpected romance — ensue between the unnamed narrator and Graham Gore, a real-life Royal Navy commander who, in this novel, is plucked from the 19th century before the disastrous end of his arctic expedition. BBC and A24 are already planning a six-part series adaptation of this charming and witty book.
Swimming in the Dark: A Novel
Tomasz JedrowskiMay 2024, Dua Lipa’s Service95 Book Club: If you love Andre Aciman’s “Call Me by Your Name,” then you’ll want to jump into “Swimming in the Dark.” “Reading ‘Swimming In the Dark’ is a bit like peering into someone’s most intimate moments of self-discovery. It’s poetic and tender, burning with a quiet rage at the persecution the LGBTQ+ community in Poland has suffered for decades and continues to fight against today,” singer Dua Lipa says in the book club announcement post.
Weird Black Girls: Stories
Elwin CotmanMay 2024, Emma Roberts and Karah Preiss’ Belletrist Book Club: Speculative fantasy and horror reveal the intricacies of Black American experiences in this collection of imaginative stories by Cotman. From narcissistic activists to LARPing gone wrong to memory-based time travel, the plots vary wildly, but they remain consistent for their thought-provoking probes into race, gender identity, and what it means to be othered.
Lessons for Survival: Mothering Against “the Apocalypse”
Emily RaboteauApril 2024, Roxane Gay’s The Audacious Book Club: Blurring the line between memoir and investigative journalism, Raboteau’s essay collection mines the depths of the climate crisis, COVID-19 pandemic, loss and grief, and many other hardships facing families of color. “Lessons for Survival” offers just that — a glimpse of how people around the globe navigate the issues that stifle their potential and threaten their safety and happiness.
Anita de Monte Laughs Last: Reese's Book Club Pick (A Novel)
Xochitl GonzalezMarch 2024, Reese’s Book Club: Gonzalez follows up her lauded “Olga Dies Dreaming” with this novel inspired by the true story of late artist Ana Mendieta. In 1985, up-and-coming artist Anita de Monte dies after falling 33 stories from the apartment she shares with her husband, an established white artist. Over a decade later, an art history student stumbles upon Anita’s story and is determined to find out more, especially as her own life starts to mirror Anita’s. Commentary on classism, racism, and sexism in the art world makes this whip-smart tale even more cutting.
The Many Lives of Mama Love (Oprah's Book Club): A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing
The Many Lives of Mama Love (Oprah's Book Club): A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing
Lara Love HardinMarch 2024, Oprah’s Book Club: Hardin’s memoir chronicles her storied life, particularly her road to redemption after her stint in jail. Packed with anecdotes wilder than fiction, “The Many Lives of Mama Love” deals with drug abuse, identity theft, and the entrapment of the judicial system, all of which the author overcame before rebuilding her life as a successful writer and literary agent. This book offers hope to those who feel defined by their worst mistakes. Oprah chose this title for their book clubs.
The Great Divide: A Novel
Cristina HenriquezMarch 2024, Read with Jenna: Henríquez (“The Book of Unknown Americans”) fashions an epic historical novel out of slice-of-life fragments. In 1907, the construction of the Panama Canal affects people from all walks of life — including Ada, a Barbadian teenager desperate to support her family, and Omar, a local young man who joins a digging crew against his father’s wishes. Their stories, and many others in the story, unveil a forgotten history shaped by imperialism (or, what some call progress).
Listen for the Lie: A Novel
Amy TinteraMarch 2024, Good Morning America Book Club: Tintera puts the thrill in thriller with this novel that keeps readers guessing till the very end. Ever since Lucy was found covered in blood with no recollection of how her best friend died, she’s lived under an inescapable shadow of suspicion. A popular true crime podcaster’s decision to revive the case could lead to answers for Lucy: Is she innocent? Or has she been lying all along? Podcast fanatics will love the mixed format of interview transcripts and Lucy’s perspective that lead up to an explosive ending.
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
Zora Neale HurstonMarch 2024, Noname Book Club: In 1927, over a period of two months and several interviews, Hurston captured the story of Oluale “Cudjo Lewis” Kossola, one of the last living survivors of the Atlantic slave trade. In exquisite and heartrending detail, Cudjo describes his upbringing and early life, his capture, life as a slave, and life after emancipation. Determined to maintain the integrity of Cudjo’s voice, Hurston refused to modify his vernacular, which led to the delayed publication of an extraordinarily powerful piece of history.
Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead: A Novel
Jenny HollanderFebruary 2024, Read with Marie Claire: The truth remains elusive right up until the end of Hollander’s twisty thriller. Charlie Colbert has very little memory of the brutal mass slaying she survived nearly a decade ago. But when a producer starts dredging up the past to make a film about it, Charlie's desperate to remember — and to finally understand the role she played in the tragic events.
Dearborn
Ghassan ZeineddineFebruary 2024, Amerie’s Book Club: A father stashes cash away inside frozen chickens. A Titanic survivor wistfully recounts a love story for the ages. A mysterious newcomer flaunts a rather bulging speedo at the community pool. In what actor and singer Amerie calls a “tender, sad, wistful, and hilarious” collection of short stories, Zeineddine delves deep into the lives of people in an Arab American community and incisively examines themes of identity, religion, sexuality, and generational differences.
Just Like Home
Sarah GaileyFebruary 2024, Belletrist Book Club: Creepy haunted house meets cold-blooded serial killer in Gailey’s gothic horror novel. But the real horror here is the dark, dysfunctional family dynamic. When Vera is forced to move back to her childhood home to take care of her dying (and cruel) mother, she must face her serial killer father’s bloody past and the ominous secrets lurking in her family home.
A Thousand Splendid Suns: A Novel
Khaled HosseiniFebruary 2024, Dua Lipa’s Service95 Book Club: Hosseini masterfully follows up his mega-hit “The Kite Runner” with this novel of equal caliber. Over 30 years of Afghanistan’s war-torn history is told through the eyes of two very different Afghan women, Mariam and Laila, who form a tight bond to protect one another from danger — both at home and in the world around them.
In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love
Joy JamesFebruary 2024, Noname Book Club: Critic, dreamer, philosopher — James wears many hats in her examination of what true Black liberation will take to succeed. Clear-sighted and frank, the “New Bones Abolition” author calls for readers to remember who and what they’re fighting for in the name of abolition.
Nothing Holds Back the Night: A Novel
Delphine de ViganJanuary 2024, Natalie’s Book Club: Natalie Portman calls her January pick “an exploration of family secrets as [author] Vigan relies on interviews, recordings, and her own imagination to reconstruct her mother’s life, a woman who battled with mental illness and was largely unknowable.” Blending fiction, memoir, and biography, the French writer crafts a moving — and at times eerie — recounting of a family history steeped in tragedy.
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
Walter RodneyJanuary 2024, Noname Book Club: The effects of slavery and colonialism run far deeper in countries in Africa than we may ever realize. According to rapper Noname’s book club, Rodney’s seminal work makes a brilliantly compelling case for why “African maldevelopment is … a direct product of imperial extraction from the continent.” This is an eye-opening must-read to understanding the socioeconomic conditions African countries face today.
The Waters
Bonnie Jo CampbellJanuary 2024, Read with Jenna: Jenna Bush Hager’s book club kicks off the year with a “beautifully written exploration of love, secrets, the resilience of nature, and the enduring spirit of rural America.” The lush island where much of the novel takes place is just as much a main character as the spirited and powerful multigenerational women that care for it.
The Storm We Made: A Novel
Vanessa ChanJanuary 2024, Good Morning America: In the years preceding World War II, Cecily Alcantara is taken with the idea of building an “Asia for Asians,” and begins spying for the Japanese to usurp British rule over her home country of Malaya (now Malaysia). A decade later, the fallout of her choices has devastating consequences — not just for the nation, but within her very family. Chan’s historical fiction offers richly drawn, morally complex characters while exploring the generational traumas of war and occupation.
One in a Millennial: On Friendship, Feelings, Fangirls, and Fitting In
Kate KennedyJanuary 2024, Read with Marie Claire: Elder millennials everywhere, if you’re looking for a sign that it’s time to let your cheugy flag fly, this is it. Kennedy, host of pop culture podcast “Be There in Five” (say that five times fast), zeroes in on many of the shared experiences that shaped ’90s girl culture, like butterfly hair clips, sleepovers, boy bands, and AIM drama. Kennedy’s nostalgic and insightful collection of essays will leave you feeling seen by someone who gets it.